Pope demands 'legitimate redistribution' of wealth
Source: Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the "economy of exclusion" that is taking hold today.
Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who are meeting in Rome this week.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_REL_VATICAN_UN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-09-06-31-28
valerief
(53,235 posts)help the 99%!
No? Oh, well. Same old, same old then.
rurallib
(62,346 posts)But just saying something like this is quite a step in today's world.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Of course, the believers faint at the Pope's every word, but most people aren't those people.
840high
(17,196 posts)in a positive way.
NOLALady
(4,003 posts)But I can appreciate the fact that he's heading in the right direction.
But that's just me.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)The Vatican is mostly a museum and this Pope HAS put his money where his mouth is since his days in Buenos Aires.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)portfolios of stocks, bonds and purely commercial real estate holdings. If they were to simply sell off their extreme high end retail spaces they could give billions to those in need. The art should be left alone. The art is not the center of their wealth. The investment portfolios are the center of their vast wealth and power. They are the largest private holder of Manhattan real estate. They own blocks of Regent Street in London, occupied by banks and luxury retailers.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)Individual parishes all over the world own their church property, but they aren't at the disposal of the Vatican to be sold off.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)"Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion. Of this wealth, Italian stockholdings alone run to $1.6 billion, 15% of the value of listed shares on the Italian market. The Vatican has big investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, construction, real estate."
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,833509,00.html
newthinking
(3,982 posts)the right wing infiltration into the religion.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)(I was going to say "1.6 billion = 15% of the Italian stock market?"
Does anyone know if they've kept that sort of share?
Firebrand Gary
(5,044 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Corner all elected Catholic Republicans with this question.
olegramps
(8,200 posts)The Catholic Church has been the staunch supporter of the working class and was a major factor in organizing unions. Several popes have addressed the problem of wealth distribution. For example Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical "Rerum Novarum" in 1891 stated the basic principle that the right to a living wage was not to be subordinated to the so-called economic laws that only favored the wealthy. It demanded that workers be paid a living wage and the right to organize to achieve these goals.
merrily
(45,251 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)Perhaps this will help you comprehend. The Catholic Church was a leader in the organized labor movement. That is totally aside from what other issues that you may have with their doctrines. It is just the fact and several of today's Catholic politicians are in totally opposition to the Church's demands for the working class. I can't comprehend why you would have a problem with the facts.
dickthegrouch
(3,151 posts)They just need a LOT more practice before they get anything right
rurallib
(62,346 posts)ask them if the Kochs should share some of the politicians they own.
merrily
(45,251 posts)dickthegrouch
(3,151 posts)Orsino
(37,428 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Beacool
(30,244 posts)RW heads will explode.......
mountain grammy
(26,571 posts)Stolen wages, pensions, homes, the list goes on as the rich get richer off the misery of the working class. Now, let's raise taxes and redistribute some of that back.
pampango
(24,692 posts)thing. There are those liberals who urge a populist alliance with right-wing populists like Paul and Cruz on certain issues.
1. Cut the biggest Wall Street banks down to a size where theyre no longer too big to fail. Left populists have been advocating this since the Streets bailout now theyre being joined by populists on the right. David Camp, House Ways and Means Committee chair, recently proposed an extra 3.5 percent quarterly tax on the assets of the biggest Wall Street banks (giving them an incentive to trim down). Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter wants to break up the big banks, as does conservative pundit George Will. There is nothing conservative about bailing out Wall Street, says Rand Paul.
2. Resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking and thereby preventing companies from gambling with their depositors money. Elizabeth Warren has introduced such legislation, and John McCain co-sponsored it. Tea Partiers are strongly supportive, and critical of establishment Republicans for not getting behind it. It is disappointing that progressive collectivists are leading the effort for a return to a law that served well for decades, writes the Tea Party Tribune. Of course, the establishment political class would never admit that their financial donors and patrons must hinder their unbridled trading strategies.
3. End corporate welfare including subsidies to big oil, big agribusiness, big pharma, Wall Street, and the Ex-Im Bank. Populists on the left have long been urging this; right-wing populists are joining in. Republican David Camps proposed tax reforms would kill dozens of targeted tax breaks. Says Ted Cruz: We need to eliminate corporate welfare and crony capitalism.
4. Stop the National Security Agency from spying on Americans. Bernie Sanders and other populists on the left have led this charge but right-wing populists are close behind. House Republican Justin Amashs amendment, that would have defunded NSA programs engaging in bulk-data collection, garnered 111 Democrats and 94 Republicans last year, highlighting the new populist divide in both parties. Rand Paul could be channeling Sanders when he warns: Your rights, especially your right to privacy, is under assault if you own a cellphone, youre under surveillance.
5. Scale back American interventions overseas. Populists on the left have long been uncomfortable with American forays overseas. Rand Paul is leaning in the same direction. Paul also tends toward conspiratorial views about American interventionism. Shortly before he took office he was caught on video claiming that former vice president Dick Cheney pushed the Iraq War because of his ties to Halliburton.
6. Oppose trade agreements crafted by big corporations. Two decades ago Democrats and Republicans enacted the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then populists in both parties have mounted increasing opposition to such agreements. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, drafted in secret by a handful of major corporations, is facing so strong a backlash from both Democrats and tea party Republicans that its nearly dead. The Tea Party movement does not support the Trans-Pacific Partnership, says Judson Philips, president of Tea Party Nation. Special interest and big corporations are being given a seat at the table while average Americans are excluded.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/07-2
If we can work with Paul/Cruz on certain issues, yet keep them at arm's length (or further) on many other issues, we can do the same with the Pope. Or we can reject tactical alliances with either even issues on which we happen to agree, due to their negative overall baggage, in an effort to not dirty our hands and not give them victories that they could use to strengthen their own movements with which we largely disagree.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)seveneyes
(4,631 posts)It sounds like this guy does not get out into the real world very much.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,154 posts)which has already had the right wing getting defensive:
http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/02/to-remain-infallible-the-pope-should-lis
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/04/is-pope-francis-now-preaching-the-inequality-gospel-of-thomas-piketty/
I think this means "a more progressive tax system is needed", and, being the Catholic church, he probably means it worldwide - ie redistribution from developed to developing countries (and that doesn't happen much, at the moment).
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)This is a man whose subordinates are supporting genocide and all he thinks to talk about it money. He does not care that his Bishops are calling for murder and asking parents to turn their gay children in to the prisons. He talks about money, but not about his Church's billions.
smallcat88
(426 posts)A little action married to his talk would be nice. All the same, the more he says stuff like this the more I'm going to enjoy watching the religious right try to dance around it. Dance, hypocrites, dance!!!
cbayer
(146,218 posts)He is not stupid or naive, and I am sure he knows the potential for rank hypocrisy here if he does not include the Vatican in the group that needs to look at redistribution.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)Last edited Fri May 9, 2014, 04:38 PM - Edit history (1)
I am sure he knows the potential for rank hypocrisy here if he does not include the Vatican in the group that needs to look at redistribution.What part of "setting a good example" does he not understand?
Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself!' And you will tell me, 'Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'
"Truly I tell you," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown."
Luke 4: 23-24
Oh.
rocktivity
cbayer
(146,218 posts)factsarenotfair
(910 posts)MANY of the assets now possessed by the upper class used to belong to the lower and middle classes.
IAMWE
(9 posts)He will be thrown under the bus, with terrible pictures.